I ran across this today and I think it's a great concept. If we can do it, this makes getting satellites, space stations and eventually space ships easier to make/get. All that is needed is the parts be sent up and then its assembled in orbit (for now). If we can capture a nickle/iron asteroid and get something to mine it with and manufacture needed parts, that's a huge step up on a sustainable and affordable orbital infrastructure.

Very cool. Developing the capability to manufacture in space is key to us spreading successfully off-planet. And if we get our 3D printers to the point that they can print another printer, along with a propulsion device to get it to another asteroid... well then, we have our first Von Neumann machines.

Very cool. Developing the capability to manufacture in space is key to us spreading successfully off-planet. And if we get our 3D printers to the point that they can print another printer, along with a propulsion device to get it to another asteroid... well then, we have our first Von Neumann machines.

My issue why the hell are we doing this alone if we do move into space it must be a global effort of the species, all the major governments sharing the costs and rewards and not each nation doing so to compare penis sizes as they outdo each other.

At least the USA, China, Russia and the European Space Agency should combine into one massive organization to advance us into the void to share the costs and risks and rewards. Colonizing space is to protect the human species from one space event wiping us out in the long term.

There is a similar concept when it comes to building space faring craft (Space ships). As it would be far easier to get materials to space than spend large amounts of money and resources on launching them from earth.

At least the USA, China, Russia and the European Space Agency should combine into one massive organization to advance us into the void to share the costs and risks and rewards. Colonizing space is to protect the human species from one space event wiping us out in the long term.

I might be wrong on this but I believe multiple attempts have been made to coordinate between communities and they've generally flopped due to language barriers, differences in measurement, or some form of political rift created by unrelated events...

I might be wrong on this but I believe multiple attempts have been made to coordinate between communities and they've generally flopped due to language barriers, differences in measurement, or some form of political rift created by unrelated events...

Yes, and as one of the two largest space efforts to-date (along with the US's Apollo Program), it has actually been a wildly successful demonstration of international cooperation. Even at the highest points of tension between the US and Russia, cooperation continued on the ISS.

I am cautiously optimistic for humanity spreading into space in a collaborative effort, as opposed to individual nations racing each other for pickings, as happened with the colonization of the Americas. I think a large part of it is simply that the effort necessitated by endeavors in space is so large that nations would much rather cooperate than try to shoulder all the costs of pioneering their own way.

It's important to note that Russia threatened to leave multiple times, and that the only reason they didn't was because you can't simply walk away from something like a space station. They spent money on it, to abandon it would be silly...

Now that there are talks of moving on from ISS, you'll notice neither country is jumping at the chance to cooperate once again...

I'm sure on the level of scientists, engineers, etc, all would be happy to collaborate once more, but on the political level it's looking slim...

I'm arguing with our national debt going into space to colonize planets and seed our species must be as global an effort as we can. An example China could build a space elevator system that would make doing orbital construction a lot cheaper a ship needs a lot less fuel if they are built and fueled in orbit. The EU Space Agency could work with Russia on the colony part. We could build the ships with other nations not having space programs of their own. And colonies would be under the UN and be under no nation.

And if we could reword the space nuclear ban treaty to allow non-military uses of nuclear power for systems to get colonists to other star systems if they use nuclear systems like detonating a nuclear device behind a colonization vessel a tech proposed to do that.

Well, that's kind of the point--to get nations overinvested to the point that they can't easily back out. But yes, with current tensions betweeen the US and Russia they aren't likely to begin cooperation on any new projects for the time being.

As far as seeding our species in space, there's no need for nuclear pulse drives to take us to other systems--our first step must be to colonize our own system, starting with Mars colonies and/or permanent orbital habitats, working towards in-situ resource utilization (i.e., manufacturing new spaceships and habitats directly from asteroids). It isn't a true seed until that seed is able to produce another seed.

The intermediate step towards that end is simply developing more cost-efficient surface-to-orbit launch technologies. Space X is doing good work on this, and Britain's Skylon spaceplane project is also extremely promising. A space elevator, unfortunately, will likely be out of reach of our engineering capabilities for quite a while. While cooperation is beneficial in some aspects, competition is often essential as well, to foster innovation.

My brother works for Virgin Galactic, so I get firsthand news on civilian space exploration and development. I think Neil Tyson said it best, that government does the dangerous work of exploration, and once things are figured out, private entities step in and take over. There won't ever be a time when government shouldn't be in space, since there's simply too many things still left to figure out...but business has got their foot in the door as far as making progress in space on their own.